Desperate cherry growers hiring teens

DONALD, Wash. — Bianca Cruz, a senior next fall at Wapato High School, needed a summer job. John Verbrugge, a cherry grower in Wapato, needed cherry pickers.

Cruz, 17, is one of about 110 high school students working for growers throughout the Yakima Valley this summer picking cherries and thinning apples.

The Washington State Fruit Commission has estimated this year’s cherry harvest at 120,000 tons. The bumper crop is driving an already increasing demand for pickers this summer.

Months before the cherry harvest began, WorkSource Yakima — a division of the state Employment Security Department — was recruiting high school students to fill picking positions.

Larry Sanchez, area director for WorkSource Yakima, said growers filed more than 700 job orders for cherry pickers last week, a 20 percent increase from last year.

The high school program is one of several recruitment efforts. WorkSource Yakima employees have gone to churches and supermarkets on the weekends, made radio announcements and worked with several community organizations to find workers.

“We’re trying everything we can,” Sanchez said.

The growers need the help. One grower reported that she had only 20 percent of the workers she needed, said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League. Anecdotal information from growers suggests shortages throughout the area, Gempler said.

Verbrugge, owner of Valley Fruit, has been outspoken about the region’s labor needs for months. Verbrugge was among the growers who hired a labor company, under the federal guest-worker program, to bring in farm workers from Thailand the past two years.

“It seems very, very tight right now and we’re not at the peak of demand right now,” Verbrugge said.